In the competition for the creepiest campaign material of 2012, we may already have a winner. It is The Life of Julia, the Obama reelection teams cartoon chronicle of a fictional woman who is dependent on government at every step of her life.
The phrase cradle-to-grave welfare state originated with Clement Attlees socialist government in postWorld War II Britain. Back then, it was meant as a boastful description of a new age of government activism. Subsequently, it became a term of derision for critics of an overweening government. In the spirit of Attlee, the Obama campaign revives the concept of cradle to grave as it highlights Obama-supported programs that take care of Julia from age 3 to her retirement at age 67.
--------------------------
Julias central relationship is to the state. It is her educator, banker, health-care provider, venture capitalist, and retirement fund. And she is, fundamentally, a taker. Every benefit she gets is cut-rate or free. She apparently doesnt worry about paying taxes. It doesnt enter her mind that the programs supporting her might add to the debt or might have unintended consequences. She has no moral qualms about forcing others to pay for her contraception, and her sense of patriotic duty is limited to getting as much government help as she can.
-----------------------
The point of view of The Life of Julia is profoundly condescending. It assumes that giving people things will distract them from larger considerations of the public weal the economy, debt, the health of the culture. This views infantilizing tendency is captured by Obamacares insistence that, for purposes of health insurance, young adults are children who belong on their parents policies until the age of 26. It devalues self-reliance and looks at us less as independent citizens than as drab Julias, bereft without the succor of our life partner and minder, the state.
